Hungry and Homeless in College
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HUNGRY AND HOMELESS RESULTS FROM A NATIONAL STUDY IN COLLEGE: OF BASIC NEEDS INSECURITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION Sara Goldrick-Rab, Jed Richardson, and Anthony Hernandez Wisconsin HOPE Lab MARCH 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary ..................................................................... 1 Coming Up Short: Basic Needs Insecurity on the College Campus ............................ 3 What We Know About Students and Basic Needs Insecurity .................................. 5 Methodology .......................................................................... 7 A Closer Look: Community College Students and Basic Needs Insecurity .....................11 Who are Homeless Undergraduates? .....................................................19 Improving Policy and Practice ...........................................................23 Appendix A ...........................................................................25 Appendix B ...........................................................................26 Endnotes .............................................................................27 The authors would like to thank the Association of Community College Trustees for recruiting institutional participants in this survey. We are grateful to Peter Kinsley for offering technical support for survey administration. We also thank Jacob Bray, Katharine M. Broton, Colleen Campbell, David Conner, and Ivy Love for providing editorial feedback. This project would not have been possible without the financial support of the Kresge Foundation. Their generosity has given us the opportunity to bring public attention to barriers faced by many of today’s students and potential solutions that could clear the way for them. Additionally, Barnes & Noble Education, the Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, and MOHELA offered support to several individual institutions, providing incentive funding for survey participants. Each participating college offered a window into the lives of their students. We thank the institutional researchers and administrators whose willingness to be a part of this project has contributed to increased understanding of the lived experience of today’s students. Finally, we would like to thank the students across the country whose responses to the survey have given voice to the needs and experiences of community college students. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Food and housing insecurity among the nation’s community college students threatens their health and wellbeing, along with their academic achievements. Addressing these basic needs is critical to ensuring that more students not only start college, but also have the opportunity to complete degrees. This report presents findings from the largest survey ever conducted of basic needs insecurity among college students. In 2015, the Wisconsin HOPE Lab published the research report Hungry to Learn, a study based on a survey of approximately 4,000 students at ten community colleges in seven states. This study includes more than 33,000 students at 70 community colleges in 24 states. While this is not a nationally representative sample of students or colleges, it is far greater in size and diversity than prior samples, and provides information to shed new light on critical issues warranting further research. In particular, we draw on this new survey to provide information to help practitioners and policymakers learn more about whether food and housing insecurity are more or less prevalent at certain types of community colleges or among different parts of the country. We also share a detailed profile of homeless community college students, including their financial circumstances and work behaviors, as well as forms of support that they received. We found substantially higher rates of food insecurity among community college students than previously reported, while rates of housing insecurity and homelessness were consistent with prior estimates. Our 2015 report indicated that about half of community college students were food insecure, but this study found that two in three students are food insecure. Both surveys revealed that about half of community college students were housing insecure, and 13 to 14 percent were homeless. Contrary to popular expectations, there appears to be very little geographic variation in hunger and homelessness among community college students. Basic needs insecurity does not seem to be restricted to community colleges in urban areas or to those with high proportions of Pell Grant recipients, and is prevalent in all regions of the country. However, some community college students are at greater risk of food and housing insecurity than others. For example, this is the first study to consider the basic needs security of former foster youth. We found that 29 percent of former foster youth surveyed were homeless, a far higher rate than that of non-former foster youth attending community college (13 percent). Students with children were also disproportionately likely to experience food and housing insecurity. While pursuing degrees despite enduring basic needs insecurity, community college students are nonetheless striving to ameliorate conditions of material hardship. Between 31 and 32 percent of students experiencing food or housing insecurity were both working and receiving financial aid. But in many cases, these efforts were not matched by other forms of support. For example, we estimate that 63 percent of parenting students were food insecure and almost 14 percent were homeless, but only about five percent received any child care assistance. Hungry and Homeless in College: Results from a National Study of Basic Needs Insecurity in Higher Education | 1 As expected, homeless community college students were experiencing especially difficult challenges. They were more likely than housing-secure students to work long hours at low-wage, low-quality jobs, and to get less sleep. It is especially concerning that despite being in such vulnerable circumstances and facing high odds of non-completion, almost one-third of these students were using loans to finance college. The data presented in this report largely confirm evidence from prior studies, underscoring the need for improvements in policy and practice to support the basic needs security of all undergraduates. Investments in food and housing assistance programs to help community college students complete degrees will yield dividends, helping individuals improve their employment prospects and reducing their need for future support. Such strategies must become priorities of leaders in higher education. 2 | Hungry and Homeless in College: Results from a National Study of Basic Needs Insecurity in Higher Education COMING UP SHORT: BASIC NEEDS INSECURITY ON THE COLLEGE CAMPUS Over the last five years, it has become increasingly clear that the living expenses associated with productive enrollment in higher education constitute substantial barriers for many college students. While growth in public sector tuition has slowed in many states, the cost of living has not.1 Even though work has long been a strategy for covering food and housing, and some financial aid is available, students struggle in today’s low-wage labor market to earn enough to make ends meet.2 At the same time, the doors to higher education are open wider than ever. Students growing up in poverty and even those who are experiencing homelessness have aspirations for further education and are more likely than before to go beyond high school in pursuing it.3 This is sensible given that 65 percent of the 55 million jobs produced in the coming decade will require some higher education or training.4 Yet few resources are available to support students who come from backgrounds marked by experiences of material hardship. Funding for public benefits programs is at a historic low and declining, and funding for college-based programs is tightly restricted.5 The security of students’ basic needs for safe, affordable housing and food has thus become a topic of discussion among some policymakers, practitioners, students, and families.6 Food insecurity is the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the ability to acquire such foods in a socially acceptable manner.7 The most extreme form is often accompanied with physiological sensations of hunger. Homelessness means that a person is without a place to live, often residing in a shelter, an automobile, an abandoned building or outside, while housing insecurity includes a broader set of challenges such as the inability to pay rent or utilities or the need to move frequently. Several studies issued in 2015 and 2016 demonstrated that sizable numbers of students at community colleges and public universities, and even some private institutions, are experiencing these challenges.8 Estimated rates of food insecurity range from 20 to 40 percent, with higher rates reported in California and among community college students, and rates of housing insecurity reaching as high as 50 percent. Two studies have converged on a key observation: an estimated average of 13 percent of community college students may be homeless.9 The apparent prevalence of basic needs insecurity in higher education leads to many questions. We explore the following questions in this report: Is this challenge primarily concentrated in areas of the country where poverty and unemployment are high, or at colleges where more students receive financial aid? Are some groups of students, particularly immigrants and